An Asus staffer has let slip that the Taiwanese tablet maker is indeed working on a seven-incher for Google and that the gadget will be announced at the end of the month.
The Android 4.1 standard bearer seems set, then, to be unveiled at Google I/O, the online advertising giant's annual technology conference, says Android …

Couldn't agree more. Phones for ultimate portability, tablets for computing on a bigger screen than a phone.

A couple of years ago carrying around a ten inch netbook was considered portable enough to take everywhere. Now all of a sudden when its less than 10mm thick and half the weight of a netbook thats no longer a portable size and people want something to fit in a pocket to be useful? Insanity.

Why is it a fail, exactly?

the 7 inch form factor is actually quite usefull- why do you think E-book readers aren't generally 10" or more?

and I always get a little bit of satisfaction from using my HTC Flyer on the train to read the news comfortably, holding the tablet in one hadn,whilst watching people elbowing each other with their oversized iPads.

7" tablets are brilliant

10" for the sofa, fine, but for travelling and office use my 7" HTC Flyer is perfect. Big enough for websites to be useable, to take notes and for emails to be readable, but not so big that it's awkward to carry around.

Hopefully this tablet will have a similar effect to the Nexus phone. It's not about Google selling millions of the things, it's about setting a benchmark, which other manufacturers of Android tablets will have to match or exceed. Google will be saying to Samsung, Dell, HTC and others, "oh, ffs, do it like this..." and then standing back to watch the iPad's market share take a battering.

Although I would love to see a 10 inch version of this too, I would like to say that a lot of people (me included) like the 7 inch form. I take mine to work and use it to and from work, read pdf's in bed with it etc.. My sister has the 10 inch one that she loves but it doesn't leave her house. She's happy and I'm happy.

All I'm saying is there is a very good reason for making 7 inch tablets: because lots of us like them. I'd love Google to produce a 10 inch one to keep everyone happy though.

Re: 7" tablets are brilliant

"But given the trend for phones is 4" or bigger (mines 4.7") if I'm going to invest in a tablet it needs to be a different form factor for a different job.

10" is perfect for portability but a use that's different enough from my phone to be worthwhile"

But, AGAIN, not everyone is the same. Whilst, yes, top-end smartphones are increasing in size (seen a lot of Galaxy Notes about lately) there is still a big market for cheaper, smaller phones. I couldn't use one any bigger than 3.5" for various (irrelevant) reasons. So having a 3.5" smartphone plus a 7" tablet works really nicely. On the other hand, my retired dad has a nokia dumb phone for out and about and a 10" tablet for using around the home and for taking on holiday - which works really nicely. He has tried to use my 7" tablet but finds everything too small for his needs.

Re: but I don't want one measured in inches!

Because metric measurements are euro-centric and smells of socialism ... Imperial(ish) measurements are what the 'merkans use. I'm of the age that continues to think in both and you probably meant to say 178mm anyway.

Re: 7" tablets are brilliant

Smart phones are growing but it's a trend I can see going the other way in the near future for a fair number of users. I've got an HTC Desire HD but having picked up the Flyer tablet, next time around it's getting swapped for something phone sized.

Pocket sized phone that can share its connection + 7" tablet and you've got a nice travel bundle. I'm not sure huge phones are the best of both worlds.

No problem with any size of gadget though, I was just disputing the idea that 7" tablets aren't a really useful size.

The thing is...

Re: The thing is...

"Is making it smaller and bunging in a GSM chipset really worth 2x the price?"

I've wondered this for ages. Phones have smaller batteries, smaller cases and smaller (albeit higher PPI) screens. From a completely uninformed viewpoint there seems to be little in it BOM-wise. The only reason I can see for certain phones costing a LOT more than tablets is the sales model. Punters spread out the cost of a phone purchase over a 24-month contract and so don't notice the cost. With tablets, the full purchase price is usually paid up front.

As an example, I just got my Mum a Samsung Galaxy Europa (i5500). For the phone, an 8GB memory card and in in-car holder/charger it was £66 off Amazon. It is a cracking little phone. The wife has had one since September and loves it (hence Mum wanting one). How can a Galaxy III cost more than EIGHT TIMES that?

How about fixing ICS on the TF101 first?

ICS on the TF101 has been a crappy experience for the best part of 4 months now. I'd rather they fixed the problems for their existing customers who've missed a third of their warrenty period due to the software problems.